Friday, December 2, 2011

Before you get angry at us in the comments, we're using the first line of this post to issue a spoiler alert.

Rowan Atkinson is best known to American audiences as Mr. Bean. He's a hilarious comedian with a lengthy career comprising works on both the silver and small screen. If you weren't already aware, he's also completely infatuated with cars. You've got to be if you wind up putting a McLaren F1 in your garage, and then tack over 37,000 kilometers on the odometer. Recognizing this passion for speed, it's no surprise that Atkinson wound up on the Top Gear guest couch staring down Jeremy Clarkson.

Rowan brought along a prop car from his upcoming film Johnny English Reborn. What appears to be a standard Rolls-Royce Phantom from the outside actually hides a rather large secret under the hood. According to Atkinson, Rolls flirted with the idea of building a 9.0-liter V16-powered Phantom, but ultimately scrapped the idea. Still, the British car maker wound up producing three or four of the mega mills, and Atkinson asked to use one for his new film. The engineers at Rolls obliged, and his Phantom is now a truly exotic luxury coupe.

Rowan wasn't there simply to talk about his movie and the Phantom. He is a star, and the Reasonably Priced Car was on the track waiting for him. How'd he do? Click past the jump to find out.